This was never an even fight, from GeoHots point of view he never had a chance at winning, not when the other side has near unlimited funding and could very well keep this case going in court until GeoHot died from old age.

This was very much a David Vs. Goliath legal fight, and sure, everyone always roots for the little guy, but to sneer at him for chosing to not fight a losing battle against overwhelming odds is a bit harsh.

Recorded music sales are through the floor. It doesn't take much though to see the impacts of piracy on the music industry.

Oooor, it could be ... you know ... real simple.
If you're trying to sell Model T Fords in a world where the customers want to buy Prius, your buisness will tank.

Digital music sales without DRM do real good, what doesn't sell is CD's because the customer no longer wants them.

Record companies refuse to adapt to the reality they exist in and they're dying because of it.
It's no longer a sustainable model to sell two good tracks and the rest 'filler' on an album, since with digital sales the customer will simply just buy the good tracks and ignore the filler.
Piracy is not the music industrys problem : stupidity is.

"Eventually, on Sunday the domain seizure was reverted and the subdomains slowly started to point to the old sites again instead of the accusatory banner. However, since the DNS entries have to propagate, it took another 3 days before the images disappeared completely."

People were fingered as child molesters for up to 3 days, this was not a matter of being checked and then let go.
To go with an analogy this was hanging a "Child Molester" sign on their mailboxes for anyone going to that adress to see.

Seriously dude ... this is not taking action against child molesters or those that traffic child pornography, this is the appearance of taking action.

Not a single child was saved, not a single pedo was arrested - they just swept the sites under the rug.
Oh, and wrongfully accused 80.000+ people of trafficking child porn in the process.
Not to mention shat all over due process and probably a whole lot of civil liberties aswell.

Don't even try the whole 'Greater good' thing, because if that's your opinion your sympathies should lie with the 80.000 wrongfully accused.

Why the derision? Do you not think that sites dealing in child porn should be taken down? We know you love pirates, but do you love child molesters too?

This is NOT taking the sites down, this is the equivalent of taking down the house number on a known crackhouse - the house is still there.
But hey, if you'd rather hide child molesters than deal with them then ... sure ... whatever floats your boat.

Restriction is the wrong way to go, criminalize it with a 5 year minimum at Rikers or a similar place, and forfeiture of all legal possessions for anyone caught.
It's only useful as a deterrence if people stand to lose more on it than they could potentially gain.

This would suit me but I am afraid that it is virtually impossible to stop all means of lobbying.

It's actually so so simple. Document (publicly) any and all interactions with a politician, afterall why should they have the right to more privacy than they give the people ?

Back that up with some more funding to the IRS for this purpouse and it's a done deal.
Have the IRS do a full check of the personal and professional finances of anyone meeting a politician, and of course the politicians themselves.